


Cadaver Dog

by MooseLane



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: AU, Dogs, Dogs named Dog, Gen, Search and Rescue AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:56:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5775946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MooseLane/pseuds/MooseLane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Search and Rescue AU! </p><p>The Citadel boys love their drones, the Green Valley SAR team is full of competent women, and a handler named Max shows up with a dog named Dog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cadaver Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Search & Rescue AU! Written for Fadagaski's "Take Your Fandom With You" prompt.
> 
> Some acronyms (since SAR folks love acronyms):  
> SAR - Search and Rescue  
> FTL - Field Team Leader  
> HRD Dog - Human Remains Detection dog  
> GORP - Good Ol' Raisins and Peanuts. Aka trail mix.
> 
> This is an unedited quick fic, so apologies for any errors.

Furiosa's team got the call over a week ago, a luxury compared to the usual 0200 hour call-outs for immediate response. Despite the early warning, waking up at 4 am to drag her ass two states over is still a challenge. Valkyrie buys a round of coffee when they stop for gas.

Cheedo dozes in the back seat. Dag settles in beside her, thumbing through an article on corpse decomposition.

"Hey, Furi, did you know that shallow graves are often sunken down? I thought they would be rounded, with all the dirt piled up."

"Mmhm," Furiosa hums into her cup of scalding hot coffee. Valkyrie texts their progress to dispatch as they pull back onto the highway.

"When all the organs in the abdomen decompose, the soil collapses in. How interesting," Dag continues.

"Gross," Cheedo mutters and repositions her head to rest on Dag's shoulder.

"Oo, here's a section on bone decomposition," Dag smiles.

Valkyrie closes her eyes and leans back into her seat. "Don't make me institute the 'No talking before coffee' rule," she warns.

"You have coffee," Cheedo points out.

"No talking before coffee is finished," Furiosa interjects. "Starting now."

The other Green Valley Search and Rescue vehicles arrive at the search site minutes behind Furiosa's rig, giving her a chance to park and set up the trailer that will serve as base of operations. By the time the other search teams show up, Keep and Maadi have pulled together most of the maps and task forms. Angharad greets the other teams and makes sure they sign in. When the Citadel boys ask if she is going into the field so heavily pregnant, she threatens to send them on a task in a thicket of poison oak.

Once the teams have arrived, the local police lay out the details. "We're looking for an 82 year old female, mild dementia, last seen eight months ago at her house a mile from here. This is a cold case search, so you are looking for decayed remains, bones, or old articles of clothing—it is believed she was wearing a grey house coat and purple slippers. As always, call in on the radio if you have possible clues or a find."

After they wrap up, Field Team Leaders swarm the rig to get their task assignments. Angharad flags Furiosa down.

"I've got you on a dog task. Who do you want to take?"

Furiosa looks at the task form and furrows her brow. "Who's the dog handler?"

"A guy from Wayland SAR, came all the way out here since none of the local teams could send an HRD dog." Angharad taps her pen against her palm. "Go pick your team or I'll do it for you."

Furiosa takes the task form over to where her team has congregated. "Who hasn't done a dog task yet?" All the younger women raise their hands. Furiosa considers. "Cheedo, this is your first search, so let's put you and Dag on a ground team. Toast and Capable, with me. Capable, you have your first responder, right? You'll be the medic. Toast, you're on radio. Meet me at the rig in ten."

Furiosa turns to scan the cars for the dog handler. She sees an eager Australian Shepard tethered beside an old Ford Falcon, drinking from a collapsible bowl and whining at passersby. As she makes her way over, she passes a group of Citadel boys gawking at a drone the size of a truck tire.

"Furiosa, have you seen this?" Nux calls out to her. "So chrome!"

"Are you gonna fly it today?" Furiosa asks, looking over Nux's shoulder as he pokes and prods the propellers.

" _He's_ not," Slit says, elbowing Nux.

Ace comes up beside her and nods to the drone. "It's Morsov's. He's been saving up for it. Don't know how much good it will be; the warm weather recently has kept a lot of foliage on the trees."

"Looks good for the family, though," Furiosa concedes.

"Yeah, well, that's why we're letting him run it today," Ace shrugs, pulling his cap lower on his bald head. "I got your new girls on the first task."

"Fresh meat!" Slit grins, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Furiosa glares at him hard. "If I hear one word of crap about you from my team, you're dead." Slit's smile falters a bit. "And watch out for Dag. She's taken a keen interest in clandestine graves."

"Oh, we'll be good with them!" Nux exclaims, wrapping his arm around Slit's shoulders. "C'mon Slit, I wanna go see Capable."

Ace rolls his eyes as he watches them go. "You're with the dog handler from Wayland, right? He's a bit of a character. Met him at the search down in Roxborough last June. He didn't care much for our boys, I think."

"Well," Furiosa says with a shrug. Ace huffs a laugh. He claps Furiosa on the shoulder and goes to round up his team.

The dog strains on its leash as she approaches, eager and whimpering at all the excitement. The handler is hanging out of the back seat, one leg done up with gaiters and the other undone as he adjusts a knee brace. Furiosa stops a few feet away and waits for him to finish. He stumbles out of the car, tests his weight on each leg, and pulls his last gaiter in place.

"You the FTL?" He asks, not facing her.

She nods. "I'm Furiosa, from Green Valley SAR. We'll be working together today."

He nods, casts a glance at her then back away. "Max. Mm—Max Rockatansky. Wayland SAR." He ducks back into the car to grab a thermos. He gestures to the dog as he takes a swallow of what smells like coffee. "That's Dog."

Furiosa hides a smile as he drains the last of his thermos. "Early morning, eh?"

Max grunts. "3 am. Long drive." He straps on his pack and detaches Dog's leash from the car. It is a damn nice car, she admits, if a bit beat up.

Furiosa starts back toward the Rig, winding through haphazardly parked SUV's and jeeps. "Don't see many muscle cars at SAR gatherings," she muses. "Especially an old Ford Falcon."

"Truck is in the shop." His voice sounds like there is a hint of a smile.

 

"Can I pet your dog?" Capable and Toast both exclaim when Furiosa gathers them all together.

Max hums and gestures to the dog. "Let her, mm, sniff you first."

"Why is she called Dog?" Capable asks as the shepherd noses her outstretched hands.

"Cause that's her name," Max replies. Toast rolls her eyes.

Furiosa lays the search map on the hood of her van. It looks like a photocopy of a photocopy of a decades-old topo map, which is not very heartening. Toast starts hoping Furiosa has her GPS with her.

"This is the area we are searching," Furiosa says, indicating a sizable shape outlined in green. "An HRD dog shouldn't get confused by our scents, so we can spread out as we search. We will do a sweep, paced about twenty feet apart, with Max in the center and Dog leading. Back and forth, until we cover the whole area." Max nods, and Capable studies the map for a minute more.

"What does HRD stand for?" Toast asks.

"Human remains detection. Hm, a cadaver dog," Max explains.

Oh, Dag is going to be so jealous.

 

When they arrive at the search area, Max unleashes Dog and lets her shake off for a moment before recapturing her attention. He throws his arm out into the air and calls a sharp command, and Dog goes running into the brush.

Brush, it turns out, that is thick and full of briars. Dog quickly learns to work around it, but the people following her have to bushwhack through. Furiosa is once again grateful she can use her prosthetic arm to push away branches without getting stuck by thorns.

As they move along Furiosa keeps track of the map and her teammates, making sure Toast and Capable stay in line with her and don't get too far ahead or behind. Max is quiet and focused on his dog, slowing only occasionally to test the air current with chalk dust to see how scents might be traveling. He's good at what he does, she can tell, and he's been doing it for a while.

Suddenly someone shouts "STOP!" and everyone freezes—even Dog, for a moment, until she continues her searching. Furiosa looks toward Capable, who is waving at her expectantly.

"What is it?" Furiosa yells back.

"Bones! Not sure what kind!"

Furiosa looks at Max and nods toward Capable. Max calls Dog back to him and follows.

The handful of bones are scattered and half buried ("Common if an animal has been scavenging the corpse," Dag had informed them), but the bones seem small, no larger than a child. They have been stripped clean of flesh, only to be recolonized by clusters of green algae.

Furiosa instructs them to do a tight search of the surrounding area, while Max directs Dog toward the remains. Dog sniffs them for a moment, then keeps walking. Max calls her back again, but she still shows no interest. Max looks to Furiosa and shakes his head, just as Toast calls out, "I found a skull! It's a deer skull."

Capable scrambles over to look. "That is a deer. Budding antlers on it too. Unless it's some kind of devil wandering the woods..." She says with a smirk at Toast.

"Don't even joke, Capable," she says, then continues in a whisper, "I bet the forest is full of creepy deer ghosts."

Max scratches Dog behind the ears and watches the exchange with bemusement until Furiosa ushers them back where they left off. As he passes Capable, he gestures towards the bones and says, "That was good. That's, um, what you want to look for."

Capable beams.

They continue their way through the search area, finding a few more animal bones, old clothing discarded by illegal fire pits, and a lot of trash.

When Dog leads them out of the briars, Toast sighs in relief until she realizes the ground has grown into a soggy marshland.

Furiosa instructs everyone to take their time, and to be careful of their ankles in the muck. Capable does not heed her warning until the mud swallows her foot up to the calf, and she nearly looses her boot trying to pull it out.

Toast meets up with her on a dry spot to take a water break, while Capable scrapes mud from her socks. "What if we find bones in the swamp? I bet they'd be buried under all that mud."

"Well, if I ever wanted to get rid of a body, this seems like a good place," Capable grumbles.

Furiosa snorts a laugh from a few feet away. "It seems like a good idea until you realize you'd have to drag all that weight out into the mud to dispose of it, sinking up to your knees with every step."

"Would someone really wander in here on their own, though?" Toast asks.

"If they have dementia, they might. Or if they're drunk. Or tired, and it's very dark." Furiosa twists the cap back on her water bottle.

"Now I know how the mammoths felt in the La Brea tar pits," Capable says, lacing her boots on tighter.

"There are searches there too," Max says, his eyes still on Dog as she crisscrosses the swamp.

"In the tar pit?" Toast asks incredulously. Max nods. "Nooo thank you. This swamp is quite enough for me."

There is a collective sigh of relief when the land becomes solid again, this time in a forest scattered with trails, and without much underbrush. "Keep in line with me. Don't follow the trails, they don't go where we're going," Furiosa reminds them.

Toast's radio crackles loudly, and she turns the volume down just so she can hear it. Team Bravo is calling in the end of their task. Toast feels a pang of jealousy when she remembers Angharad was going to pick up bagels and donuts for crews coming in around lunch time. The radio crackles again.

"Charlie, this is Base, what's your status?"

Toast relays the message to Furiosa, and scribbles down the coordinates she gives her. Toast turns up the radio a bit.

"Base, this is Team Charlie, we are 60% done with out task," Toast says. 60%? She hopes to god there's no more swamps in their search area.

Furiosa is checking her GPS when Max calls for a stop. She looks over to see Dog has slowed her pace and has her nose tight to the ground.

"She's working something," Max says. "Follow her slow."

"Forward slow!" Furiosa calls out, and they inch along after the dog.

After some time their pace has slowed nearly to a stop. Dog traverses the clearing before them, finally coming to a spot at the edge of the woods and lays down, watching Max expectantly.

"Got something," he says, and the group files in behind him as he approaches his dog.

There, between her paws, is what looks like a large femur half buried in loose dirt.

"That's something," Furiosa agrees. Max gestures her toward the find while he digs a chew toy out of his pack and lures Dog away.

"We're going to do a tight sweep of the area like we did with the deer bones. If you find something, call 'stop.' Don't touch or disturb anything if possible." Furiosa pulls out a roll of bright orange flagging tape and begins to mark off the area around the femur. A few yards away, Max engages Dog in a raucous game of tug of war.

"Why are they playing right now?" Capable asks as she scans the ground.

"To reward Dog for the find," Furiosa explains. "Searching is a game for dogs, so when they make a find they get a reward to reinforce their training."

Max makes an "oof" sound as Dog topples him over and starts licking his face.

In the end they find a few ribs, a jawbone, and a piece of dirt-caked terry cloth, what might have been a bathrobe. They call it in and flag the area, then trek up to the road to meet the police when they arrive.

As they wait, Max gives each of them treats to give to Dog, beaming at her the whole time. He gives Toast a rope toy and lets her play for a bit, then eases himself onto the roadside barrier beside Furiosa.

"How's the knee?" She asks.

"'Bout ready to quit," he grimaces. "Hm, just in time." She smirks at that.

"What got you into search and rescue?" She asks, digging into a bag of gorp.

He hums, watching the women play with Dog. "Lost someone, never found. Long time ago now." He huffs a sigh. "Started doing dispatch for a team, while on leave from the force." He gestures toward his knee. "Joined the ground team when I was, mm, back walking." She nods and passes him the bag of trail mix. He grumbles, "You picked out the chocolate, left all the raisins."

"It's my gorp," she retorts. "Give it back if you don't want any." He rolls his eyes and pours out a handful of nuts and _lots of raisins_.

"How'd you get started?" He asks.

"The old women on our team, they've been at it forever. They were friends of my mom. I joined them when I got back from Iraq."

"You train them well. Mm, they did good out there," he says as Dog pulls the rope toy out of Capable's hands.

"You should come train with us sometime. It would be good for them to get more experience with search dogs," Furiosa says, reaching into the bag of gorp as Max hold it out.

"Yeah," Max smiles. "That would be good."

**Author's Note:**

> All locations, teams, and details of the search are made up. I do search and rescue on the US east coast, so that's my base of reference--things are probably done differently elsewhere. I don't train with search dogs, but I've been on searches with them before, so hopefully I got that part at least a little bit right. Sometimes searches go quick like this, and sometimes they slog on for hours and you find nothing. It's the luck of the draw.
> 
> SAR is really cool and interesting, and if you want to try it out you should look up a team in your area!
> 
> Also here's my MMFR tumblr party: whowitnessedtheworld.tumblr.com


End file.
